


Like Real People Do

by ghostyyishere



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Medieval, Alternative Universe - Kingdom, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Minecraft, based on a hozier song, dreamnotfound
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:22:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28426959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostyyishere/pseuds/ghostyyishere
Summary: Dream is a prince who desperately wants to escape and live his life. George is a soldier, and practically a genius, being forced away from the comfort of his own home to devote his life to a tyrant king. After running away from lives they don't want to live, the two run into each other.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF), Clay | Dream/GeorgeNotFound (Video Blogging RPF)
Comments: 12
Kudos: 96





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still figuring out how ao3 works so bear with me for the first few chapters, this is also published on my Wattpad under the same username!

Clay was always, to put it lightly, a troublemaker. The young prince was under constant supervision due to his multiple attempts to escape. His room became barren, all sharp objects and things he could use to escape quickly stripped from his reach. The blank walls constantly stare at him as he plots his next escape, each one harder than the last because of the increased security surrounding him.

_Forty-seven times_ , he counted. That was how many times he had tried to escape. Whether it be climbing out of his window with a rope, hopping the fence while out in the fields, or leaping through the window, not caring whether he made it or not.

His last attempt at escape had left him with a nasty broken arm that had only just recently healed. As his mother chastised him about how he could’ve done much worse than just break his arm, he completely ignored her. He was too wrapped up in his own victorious bliss to care about what she was saying.

That was the closest he had gotten to finally escaping.

Once he had realized he wasn’t dead, he started sprinting. Yes, his arm stung, and he cried out in pain, but it was the freest he had felt in forever. So, he ran, as fast as he could. He held on to that tiny taste of freedom with all that he had. Until a guard eventually tackled him and threw him back in the hellhole that his parents call a bedroom.

The king and queen never understood Clay’s desperation to be released into the real world, and they would never understand. He didn’t understand why he was cooped up in this stupid palace, like a bird in a cage.

Some days, he thought he might finally lose it. That his dull, monotonous life had finally caught up with him. The only thing that kept him from attempting to jump out of that window again as a last-minute attempt at freedom, was books. Sometimes he would read, sometimes he would write, it depended on the day.

Clay was an excellent writer, years of practice ensured that. His little worlds were described so vividly that even a person with the dullest imagination could perfectly capture what he also saw when he wrote. To no one’s surprise, the boy who craved adventure wrote stories about warriors, out in the woods fighting creatures and taking down the bad guys.

All of his short stories revolved around one man, Dream.

Dream could be seen as an outlet for Clay, something to quench his desire to explore. Seeing as Dream, his fictional character, perfectly matches his own description.

He was twenty-one years old. _Twenty-one_ , and still had to rely on his fictional characters to give him an imitation of independence.

It had been like this since he was fourteen when his father discovered that teenage boys tend to rebel against their parents. So, they locked him away, their precious little only child that needed to be protected.

Sometimes, what keeps Clay up at night is not his next plot to escape, nor is it his longing for freedom that he has been so cruelly deprived of, _no_ , the thing that keeps him up at night is wondering if he is locked away because of his parents’ love, or their own selfish agenda of making sure that their kingdom has another ruler. A ruler from their bloodline.

_I have to get out. I am going to get out_ , he thought to himself. He didn’t care if it was selfish to want to escape, for all he knew, his parents were keeping him for their own selfish reasons.


	2. Number Forty-Eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream makes a new friend.

Clay wakes up only to stare at his ceiling after a horrible night’s sleep. He got much less rest than usual, which isn’t a lot, to begin with. He needed to get out.

After striking a deal with one of the nicer guards by beating them in a game of rock paper scissors, they reluctantly opened the gates for the prince to go out to the courtyard.

“Don’t cause any trouble now,” they said, “I don’t wanna have to deal with your mom” They shudder jokingly.

“Wouldn’t dream of it!” Clay shouts back.

He walks around trying to look as innocent as possible. _No trouble here guys! Just taking a stroll!_ To which most of the guards would believe, albeit with a bit of doubt. They probably just assumed someone else would handle it if the prince decided to start something _, again._

Once he was finally off the guards’ radar, he ran to a little secluded corner of the courtyard. His humble little abode, his sanctuary, if you will. He didn’t get to come often but the best days are when he gets to sit in the grass, back against the tree, protected from guards and his parents by the thick bushes that conceal him.

That’s not even the best part. He slowly picked up his little sword, if you could even call it that. In reality, the man just picked up a sharpened stick, the closest substitute to a sword when you have helicopter parents, and swung it around a bit.

Clay had sharpened it a while back, he figured that the closest thing to becoming the Dream character he wrote about was to practice sword fighting in the woods where no one could see him.

He had gotten pretty talented too. Like he was born to wield a sword, or a stick in this case. He swung at the tree, dancing around it and dodging fake attacks. The only sound being his heavy breath and the occasional _thwack_ as the stick hit the tree. Once he was satisfied that his opponent had been thoroughly beaten, he slumped back against the tree, his former foe, to sharpen the stick.

\---

The peacefulness of his little secret hideout didn’t last long. Soon after he began working on sharpening, he heard his name being called by the guards. Desperate to keep his little spot hidden, he ran around the forest and emerged from the bushes at a different spot. He started walking towards the nearest guard.

“What is it?” He asked, genuinely curious. He only ever gets called in for important meetings or before dark.

“Your parents want to discuss something with you, they requested that you eat lunch with them today!”

He froze, his parents never invite him to eat. Obviously, there is always a seat at the table for him, but they don’t _make_ him stay with them. Clay usually either eats his meals alone or with a couple of guards making small talk.

“Uh, okay? Tell them I’ll be there in a minute and I need to get changed first”

“Oh no they need to see you right away, they told us it was urgent!”

_Great_ , he thought. _Just what I needed today._

“Thanks for telling me!” He said, running towards the castle.

\---

“Hello, darling! I’m so happy you came!” His mother went in for a hug, which the prince quickly refused by stepping to the side.

“Yeah, you called me here, so I came”

“Oh well, you must be hungry? Come sit!” She exclaimed with that creepy plastered on smile he always saw her wear.

He gingerly pulled out a chair at the further end of the table, keeping quiet because he didn’t want to be there any longer than he absolutely needed to.

“We’ll try to keep this update short because you obviously have so many other things to do”, His father said.

Clenching his fist under the table, Clay was already seething with anger. _He knows damn well they don’t let me do anything around here._

“So? What’s the news?” He replied calmly.

His mother takes her seat on the other end of the table, by his father’s side as he explains their new situation.

“The citizens from the Nether broke their neutrality deal, instead of accepting that they are a neutral area for the different countries, they want independence to become their own country. You know this cannot happen right?”

“Why, only lower-class citizens live in the Nether anyways”

“ _Because,_ ” His father said, slightly disappointed that his son had to even ask the question, “The deal was that the Nether was to be neutral territory for all the countries in the overworld, meaning citizens could live in peace away from the drama of politics. Instead, they are organizing violent attacks on the outskirts of our kingdom to gain… independence,” He scoffs at the word.

“Only our kingdom, why?”

“Because The Overwoods is the largest and most powerful country, and I will not let my pride and joy go to waste at the hands of those low-lives!”

“The point that your father is trying to make dear,” his mother interjects, “is that-“

“Is that we’ve found someone to help us rid our kingdom of these traitors. A billionaire who goes by the name Jschlatt. He is funding our military and aiding us in rebuilding the Nether once we take down its people”

“And I needed to know about this why exactly?”

“You need to know about it because this war means extra security on _you_. It also means that the public eye will be on us! So _no stupid stunts again_. I can’t have you tarnishing this kingdom’s name with your unruly behavior during a time so important!”

The prince stood up, clearly annoyed, “So what I’m hearing is, instead of diverting soldiers to the actual _war_ , you’ve decided that their skill will be best spent making sure I don’t escape? Sounds like horrible planning if you ask me!”

“Oh no you misunderstand, we’ll be sending all of your guards to war, so no need to worry about that”

“Then what are you doing?”

“Let's just say we hired a professional, they assured us keeping you in line would be an easy job for him”

“For who?”

“I don’t know his damn name! Ask em when he gets here! You’re dismissed, that’s all you needed to know”

He didn’t need to hear that twice. Leaping up so fast the chair nearly fell over, he strolled back to his room.

_A one-man job… huh? Who does this guy think he is anyway?_

\---

_Back in bed, again._

While he never spoke to his mother, and never got along with his father, he had to admit that taking down the Nether seemed to be the best course of action. I mean, if they broke the neutrality agreement, they kind of had it coming. He would never say it out loud, but he was proud of his parents for making the right decision.

Welp, he was getting bored and it was time to play his favorite game. The rules were very simple, literally just eavesdrop on the guards outside of his door. It wasn’t much, but sometimes he would get good gossip. The other day he heard about a runaway bride from the guard who was supposed to be the best man at the wedding.

He pressed his ear against the door, hoping he got someone interesting.

“Did you hear how they lied to the prince at lunch today?”

_Lied, to me? About what?_

“Yeah, I feel sorry for the guy, he has no clue what they’re actually doing” Another voice responded.

The first voice spoke up again, “It just sucks to hear the Nether being villainized like that because that’s where I’m from”

“No shit! Really?”

“Language! But yeah I just left the Nether a year ago to come work here”

“So you know that the King was lying to his son?”

“Yeah he-“

Clay pulled the door open so quickly the guards nearly fell on his floor.

“Lying about _what_?” He demanded.

“Great well uh… I’m gonna go, Darryl, I think you’re best suited to explain the situation.” The other guard said, quickly slipping out at the sight of the prince.

“So, Darryl, mind explaining to me what that was all about?”

“I don’t mean to sound rude, but wouldn’t it be unwise of me to speak ill about the king and queen in front of their son?”

“No no it’s fine I love shit-talking about them, go on”

“Okay first of all language, second of all, you might want to take a seat”

He walked back into his room to sit on the edge of the bed as the guard stood leaning against the wall.

“What were they lying about?”

Darryl takes a deep breath, as if preparing for the worst, “The Nether never broke the neutrality deal, it’s actually your kingdom that incited the whole war. And uh…. Gosh, this is hard to explain. The only reason we are attacking the Nether is because Jschlatt struck a deal with your father. We wipe out the Nether and Jschlatt uses the land for industrialization while they split the profit”

Clay always liked to hold on to the belief that his parents were good people, they were locking him up for his protection. They were fighting the Nether for their kingdom’s protection. Everything they did, he tried to justify, because on top of everything else he wanted to hold on to the hope that his parents weren’t the villains he always made them out to be.

But there was no denying it, it was flat out wrong, immoral, horrible. He wanted to throw up upon hearing the words come out of the guard’s mouth.

The guard seemed to take notice of his clear uneasiness.

“Prince? Are you alrig-“

“Dream, call me Dream”

“Well but prince, your name is Clay?”

“My parents gave me that name. I don’t want it anymore. Call me Dream”

“Alright… Dream, are you feeling okay?”

He hesitated, unsure whether to let this guy in on how he’s feeling.

_I might as well try to make one friend._

“No, I’m not feeling okay right now, but I needed to hear that, so thank you”

“Hey, no need to thank me man, if you need anything else I’ll be here for you, quite literally though I will be right outside your door”

Dream chuckled before thinking about Darryl’s offer.

“Could you help me escape?” He asked, already knowing the answer.

“I’m so sorry princ- Dream, but you know I can’t, I’ve got family back in the Nether I have to make sure have money for food, and I’m honestly pretty scared of your dad,” he hesitates for a second, “But I can tell you – and you didn’t hear from me – that when your personal guard comes in, there will be fewer guards surrounding you to give him a proper greeting”

“When does the new guard come?”

“Tomorrow”

“And you’re sure you can’t do _anything_ to help me out?” Dream pleads.

“Yes, I’m sure! Now go get planning or something!” He says chuckling.

“Dang, you’re a bad friend,” he says jokingly, “That’s what I’ll call you, Bad, it’ll be a nice little nickname, like Dream!”

“Huh, I like that name! It’s fun, I’ll see you later Dream”

“Bye Bad!” Dream said as Bad shut the door behind him, returning to his post before another guard could see.

The silence of his new friend leaving allowed Dream to focus on his new escape plan, number forty-eight.

_One more night, one more night and I’ll be gone._

_Thank you, Bad._


	3. Pushy Much?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George complains a lot.

_I hate it here, I really, genuinely, hate it here._

Just yesterday, George was going about his life as normal. Protecting the people of the village, crafting potions for the sick, and learning to shoot with a bow and arrow. Now he’s stuck on a carriage, pissed off, on the way to serve possibly the worst king to ever be put in power.

He sat in the carriage, waiting for what was about to be the rest of his miserable life. _I want to go back_ , he thought to himself as he stared out the carriage, getting shoved around as the wooden wheels pass over rocks and sticks.

After a while of staring out the window, barely even feeling the monotonous bounce of the carriage and crunch of the gravel, he started to zone out. He would rather push it all to the back of his mind, the memories would make him sad, but he decided if he was never going to see his hometown again, he may as well indulge himself in some happy memories.

\---

George remembers getting his first bullseye during practice. He was extremely gifted when it came to sword fighting, potion-making, and pretty much everything else, but he never seemed to have that same gift for archery. His friend never let him live it down until the day George decided to swallow his pride and ask for lessons.

But now George stands there, bow in hand, staring at the arrow stabbed straight in the middle of his target.

“Dude! You did it! You are officially the master of everything!” He says, bowing mockingly.

George stares at him and scrunches his nose out of annoyance, “Shut up, Sapnap”.

“Nope, never!” Sapnap smiles, seeing George’s agitation.

“I only got one bullseye, that doesn’t mean that I’m a _master_ at anything”

“Well said, young student, leave the mastery to me”

“Oh _please_!” George rolls his eyes.

“What? I’m just saying, if you get to be good at everything else, I at least get to have archery!”

“Alright, alright, let’s go home Sap” George rips the arrow out of the target, beckons to his friend to follow, and trudge through the snowy terrain back to their homes.

\---

_I wonder what he’s doing right now, probably sleeping._

He missed his village, and he did not deserve to be taken away from his home, his family, _Sapnap_. The warm weather felt odd and unfamiliar, he hated it. He didn’t care if he had a runny nose or frozen hands, he wanted to be out in the snow again, shooting arrows with his friend.

The Overwoods had taken him away on a technicality, _a technicality_! He’s getting dragged away from his home because, _no_ , he doesn’t belong to a kingdom because his village is a mile _outside_ the border! What kind of bullshit was that? His village was a mile outside the border of the small kingdom, The Spikes. It was a humble little kingdom, but it had some of the kindest, most genuine people George had met, including the king. He had always considered himself a citizen of The Spikes, but I guess that doesn’t matter when you have a greedy king trying to find a personal guard for his bratty son. He hadn’t even met the prince yet and already he hated him.

_‘Unclaimed territory’ my ass, they knew I was from The Spikes, they didn’t care._

\---

As his head continued to bump against the carriage as he tried to relax to calm his anger, an idea popped into his head. It could work.

_What do I have to lose?_ He thought to himself.

_Oh, I don’t know. Maybe your life?_

He quickly shook that thought from his head, he didn’t have time to worry about that right now.

He looked to the side where his sword was propped up, the one thing they let him keep. He had said it was his lucky sword, and the guards obliged. While that was mostly a lie to keep his weapon, it did hold a special place in his heart. George had saved up the money to buy that sword himself, and Sapnap had given him a deep blue jewel to put on the handle. He didn’t want to lose it, but now, it would come in handy.

He slowly stuck his head out of the carriage door, trying not to alert the driver sitting in the front. He looked down at the wheels, making sure they weren’t too thick.

What he saw delighted him, three of the wheels were sturdy, too risky to try breaking. But the fourth, the fourth wheel looked splintered and very obviously dying.

He gingerly picked up his sword, careful not to make the slightest sound, and got ready. He stared at the blue jewel on his sword, I’ll be back soon, Sap. He knew that after he escaped The Overwoods, he would probably be considered a number one criminal, but he didn’t care.

He took a deep breath, the timing had to be perfect. Break the wheel in one go, take down the driver next.

He lifted his sword, staring at the looming castle in the distance.

And swung down.

Everything happened almost instantaneously. Dread overtook his body as his sword got stuck on the wheel. The driver had sped up the carriage, trying to get him to the castle before he could escape to the woods.

George hacked desperately at the wood until it broke, jumped out the window, and swung himself over to the driver’s seat in front. The driver looked up, visibly frightened. George confidently wielded his sword, thinking that throwing a defenseless driver off the carriage would be easy. He flipped the sword in his hand, planning on inflicting minimal damage by hitting him with the hilt of his sword.

The driver pulled out a knife and swung at George’s right arm. _Shit_. Luckily, the driver had assumed, wrongly, that George was right-handed, so he still had his dominant hand in shape. George flipped the sword back around in his hand so that the sharp side was facing the guard, he was pissed off.

The guards outside the castle had to have seen the commotion happening on top of the carriage, he had to get this finished quickly.

The driver was obviously inexperienced with a weapon, but he was still very dangerous. He swung aimlessly in the air, just hoping to land a hit. George had to stay an arm’s length distance to avoid being chopped up.

They were getting closer to the castle, George could see the tent set up, filled with soldiers. _A welcoming party?_ George chuckled to himself. _They must’ve been expecting a happy arrival; as if I’d go willingly._

George knelt down and swung his leg, sweeping the driver off of his feet, and stomped down on the man’s chest to keep him from standing.

He took more wild swings, this time aimed at George’s leg, he got one good cut in before George could stop him. He clenched his jaw in pain, cursing himself for not reacting sooner, and swung his sword. He sliced the back of the man’s hand, causing him to drop his knife as he brought his other hand to stop the bleeding.

George heaved a sigh of relief and lightly shoved the man off of the carriage, into the soft grass. Now, stuck on a moving carriage with no driver, George grabbed the lantern that was once at the driver’s side and lit the whole thing on fire. He climbed on to the back of the horse, willing it to speed up so the carriage would gain momentum, before cutting the rope connecting the saddle to the carriage, and sending the burning pile of wood straight into the tent full of guards.

He stopped for a moment to stare at his handiwork, but a light grunt from the horse shook him to his senses. He took off towards the wilderness, an army of guards in toll.

\---

After a few minutes of riding through the woods, the screaming of the guards began to grow faint. Now all he needed to do was find the nearest village to start his way back home.

_Where is the nearest village?_

_Oh, God._

He didn’t know where anything was, this was completely new territory for him. He needed to find a place to get a map or heal his wounds. It would be ideal to find a village to stop and bandage himself, but if the situation got dire, taking a break in the woods would have to do.

As he was lost in thought, he felt something slam into his horse, almost throwing him off. He pulled on the reins, willing the horse to stop, as he looked for the source of his new nuisance.

“Shit,” He heard a voice mumble from behind the horse. He hopped off to investigate.

There, in the grass, lay a strange, masked man. No weapons, no armor, no mode of transportation, just… him.

The strange man looked up at him, though it was hard to tell through the mask. It’s permanent smile plastered on, keeping onlookers from seeing his true emotions, his true intentions.

“This is just great! You aren’t a guard, are you?”

That question put some of George’s worries aside, this guy wasn’t here for him. Perhaps he was a criminal, he was also trying to run away.

“No,” George said, aiming his sword at the masked man’s neck, “Are you?”

Despite his nervousness, the man began to chuckle, as if he couldn’t even comprehend the possibility of serving the king.

“No no no, _definitely_ not”

“Then what the hell are you doing here?”

“I could ask the same question”

George moved closer so the sword was against his neck. “What are you doing here?” He asked again, with more force.

The man seemed to hesitate before he opened his mouth to speak, “I, well I- It’s kind of hard to explain, long story man”

The sound of angry guards in the distance returned; George had to dump this guy.

The man looked significantly more distressed as he turned back to face George, “Take me with you!”

George was taken aback by the man’s boldness, but he couldn’t afford to travel with someone he didn’t fully trust.

The sound of the guards got louder, they were seconds away from being captured.

“Sorry,” George sympathized, climbing on to his horse, “but I don’t need the extra weight”

He willed his horse to build up speed, leaving the man behind, when he felt something slam into his back. He looked down to see arms around his waist and turned around to see the masked man had jumped on top of his horse.

_The audacity of this bitch._

The man wheezed as he tried to find the breath to speak to George, “Can't get rid of me now!”

“We _will_ be speaking about this when we get to the nearest village,” George said, irritated and defeated.

“Well, you’re going in the wrong direction if you’re trying to get to a village,” The man said, still being barely able to contain his wheezing.

George was enraged by this man’s inability to take this situation seriously, “Then show me how to get there!”

“Jeez fine!” He wheezed out, “Pushy much?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I might be uploading a little less, probably once a week, because of school. Ty for reading!


	4. Just a Nickname

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream figures out how to socialize with people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!! For updates, you can check my Tiktok: Ghostyyishere. I usually post on there when I publish another chapter.

“Hey, that cut on your leg looks pretty bad man, are you sure you’re good to take us there?”

George, despite the numbness in his leg, refused to admit something was wrong, “I’m fine, I’ll patch it up when we get to the village”

“That might take a while though, there’s not really any place close to the kingdom, it’s just a big stretch of woods”

George cursed under his breath; he wasn’t sure if he could make it that far.

“Do you wanna take a break here and patch it up?” The man asked.

“No! I’m not gonna let those guards get to us, _I’m fine_ ,” George insisted.

They began to quiet down as it became clear that George had won the argument, they wouldn’t stop until they got somewhere. Despite their conversation being over, and them not being in direct danger from the guards, George couldn’t help but notice the man still had his tight grip around George’s waist.

“You never ride on a horse before or something? You can loosen up on me”

“Oh right! Uh, sorry… this is just a very… stressful situation compared to what I’m used to”

“Well the guards are far behind us now, you’re kinda restricting my airflow here”

He mumbles a quick apology, and his hands loosen, giving George room to breathe, room to think.

_I’m only feeling a little lightheaded, I should be able to make it._

_I’ll patch myself up when we get to a village._

_I’ll be fine, just get to a village._

The horse slowed as George began to lose his grip on the reins and on consciousness.

_Stay awake, stay awake, stay awake._

He felt his head nod down and his body go sideways before he saw nothingness, pitch black.

\---

“Dude! You’re back”

George turns to look in the direction of the unknown voice, his head foggy.

Someone tackles him in a hug before he can identify the voice, making a big thud in the snow, George looks up.

_Sapnap._

“How’d you get here so fast?”

“I-,” George stuttered, stunned that he was finally home.

“Seriously dude, how’d you do it, you got magic up your sleeve too or what?”

_How did I get here so quickly?_

He looked at Sapnap, beaming at him. He wished it were true, but it physically wasn’t possible. He wasn’t here; so, where was he?

_The horse, I fell off the damn horse._

Sapnap turned quizzically, “What’s wrong George?”

“Nothing I-,” everything vanished as he began to return to consciousness.

\---

He woke up to the sound of panicked mumbling.

“He said not to stop the horse, but I had to stop the horse, right? Oh, he’s gonna be pissed at me.” George drowned the man out as he continued to ramble.

George opened his eyes and saw the masked man, smiling face staring into his soul. He was sitting right in front of George. Leaning over him, looking for any sign of life. When the man had seen that George’s eyes opened, he nearly jumped for joy.

“Oh thank God, you’re okay! I thought you were gonna die seriously! I’m not good at this kinda medical stuff so I did the best I could, I hope you don’t mind”

George looked down to see that the stranger had not only bandaged the deep gash in his leg but also the knick on his right arm. This guy must have noticed something was wrong with his arm too, he was pretty attentive for someone who had a mask that probably obscured fifty percent of his view.

“Why did yo-. I mean, why didn’t you just leave me and take the horse? It would’ve been easier for you”

The man seemed to contemplate how to best answer his question, he parted his lips as he decided what to say, “Because I’m not that kinda guy, and I mean sure, you did hold a sword up to my neck, but it's not like I’m mad at you for that or anything. I probably would’ve done the same thing, if I had actually brought a sword with me, but that’s beside the point. The point is, I’m not gonna leave someone behind if I can’t help it, also I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to finally make a friend”

_‘Finally,’ what is that supposed to mean?_

“You do realize friends know each other’s names, right?”

“Well, what’s your name?”

“George, you?”

“Dream, though it’s more of a nickname”

“C’mon, I don’t even get your real name?” George said sarcastically.

“I don’t use that name anymore,” Dream said, his calm and goofy demeanor turned serious.

“Alright then, Dream it is. Nice to meet you,” George held out his hand.

Dream accepted it eagerly, helping George off the ground in the process, “You too!”

George had realized he hadn’t fully recovered from his blood loss when Dream pulled him off the ground, as soon as he got up, he was going back down.

Dream was pretty quick with his reflexes, almost cat-like. As soon as he saw George’s knees collapse, he shoved an arm under his armpit to support his back.

George tried to stand up, but his efforts were in vain, Dreams hand remained on his upper back, the other on his shoulder, holding George close.

He stood there, limp in Dream’s grasp, trying to focus on the task at hand.

_Get to a village._

“I’m fine to steer the horse, you can let me go,” George mumbles, staring to the side out of embarrassment. His face, or rather his mask, was very close to him.

Dream laughed again, if you could even call it a laugh. His laugh sounded like all the air was leaving his body, it genuinely concerned George that the man would run out of air at some point. “No way I’m letting you steer, not like this”

With little protest, George was hoisted up on the horse by Dream, and Dream hopped in front of George.

“Oops almost forgot, can’t have you falling off”

Dream grabbed George’s hands and wrapped them around his waist, ensuring that his new friend would stay safe.

George’s head dropped on to Dream’s shoulder, too tired to worry about the embarrassment he would probably feel later. Dream grabbed the reins, and they began to travel through the woods again.


	5. Enemy of My Enemy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George is a heavy sleeper and a major inconvenience.

George’s head lolled against Dream’s shoulder as the horse galloped through the thick trees. Which could’ve been a very peaceful and relaxing moment for the both of them, if Dream knew how to ride a horse. So, while George got the rest that he very much needed, Dream was busy keeping them from being thrown off at high speeds.

_God damnit!_

He quickly pulled the reins to swiftly avoid getting smacked by a branch.

_Why couldn’t I ever just get riding lessons!_

Dream cursed his parents for keeping him so sheltered. Right about now, that was doing much more harm than good.

As he continued to just barely miss getting whacked by branches, he noticed the familiar weight on his shoulder was no longer there. Dream risked turning around to check on George, only to notice him slowly slipping off the back.

_I just met the guy! Shit, don’t die on me now George!_

The small branches whipped against Dream’s back while he tried to grab his new friend. _A deep sleeper that’s for sure, Jesus._ Dream felt every scrape against his back, it hurt like hell, but he finally grabbed George by the shoulder. He grabbed the sleeping man’s hands and flung them over his shoulders, spinning around to keep one hand on the reins and one hand gripping George’s arm to his chest.

With his concentration able to return, he tried multiple methods to get the horse to stop. Yelling, kicking, giving a stern talking-to, speaking calmly, nothing worked. He rummaged around in his brain, seeing if anything could help him control this stupid horse.

Then he remembered, honestly, how did he not think of this before.

He remembered when he ran into the horse, as he fell to the ground, George pulled on the reins to stop the horse.

Dream gripped the reins with his hand tightly and pulled back. The horse immediately began to come to a stop. He could relax at last.

_Where is the village?_

There was at least one helpful thing he learned while at the castle, and that’s memorizing the maps. He knew that they had exited the kingdom from the Westside and that they had been traveling in a fairly straight line, mainly because Dream didn’t know how to turn. Conveniently, the nearest village was Northwest, and they didn’t need to pass by the kingdom to get there. Dream tried to recall the map in his head to calculate the distance, he settled on about thirty minutes.

Lightly kicking the horse’s side, copying George’s movements, he set off Northwest.

\---

The village lights glow in the distance, and Dream tugs on the reins to stop the horse just before he can emerge from the woods.

He turned around to face his new acquaintance. “George,” he taps his shoulder lightly.

_Heavy sleeper, right._

He shook George, hoping that would jar him awake. “George!”

Nothing.

He balls his hand up into a fist and taps him on the head a couple of times, which seemed to finally work. George looked very displeased to be awake, but still stared up at Dream and asked, “Are we there yet?”

“Yup, it’s right over there,” Dream points his finger, directing George to the lit area of the village.

“Thank God,” George sighs, “I just want to sleep in a real bed.”

“You already slept on me for like, an hour!”

“So?”

Dream scoffs at George’s response, “Jeez fine, I guess I’ll just take the first shift awake.”

“Why can’t we both just sleep at the same time?”

“Because I’m on the run and judging by the rush you were in when you heard the guards, I’m guessing you are too. So, they’ll be looking for us”.

He decided to cut George a little slack, he was probably too tired to want to think about all that.

George seemed to contemplate Dream’s statement, “Fine then, we’ll find a place to sleep and I’ll take the first watch, if you fall asleep on the job I don’t wanna die.”

Dream felt annoyed by George’s reply, _I just saved your ass back there, idiot._

He bites his tongue, better to keep that to himself than to have George think he’s a complete idiot. Dream was about to suggest they head to the village before he heard shouting come from the distance, near the town center.

It was the soldiers from the castle.

Dream and George both looked at each other in concern, they needed to get supplies from that village, a map, food. They both scrambled to get further back in the greenery, ensuring that they wouldn’t be seen. George grabbed the reins of the horse and tied it to a nearby tree. He ran back and crouched down next to Dream, ready to plot out their next move.

“Dream, we’ve got to just camp out here.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you bring anything with you? Blanket? Food? Anything?”

“Uhh…. No, running away was a pretty… improvised decision”.

“Great,” George rolled his eyes in frustration.

“Well did you bring anything, besides that shiny sword of yours?”

George’s face flushed red, “…Nope.”

Both of the runaways just stared at each other, eyes filled with nothing but pure embarrassment, before breaking out into laughter.

George wiped a tear from his eye, trying to regain his breath, “Well I guess your cloak can be a good blanket, but that’s about it.”

“And we’ll go to the village in the morning?”

“If the soldiers have left by then, yes. They’ll definitely recognize me, and your mask definitely doesn’t help you blend in with the crowd. Unless you’re willing to take it off?”

“Nope,” He replied nonchalantly.

“Thought so, damn what’d you do that was so bad to have to hide your face?” George said with a sarcastic tone.

“Well, what did _you_ do?” Dream swung back.

“Touché”

Dream let his back fall against the ground, staring at whatever stars he could spot through the leaves, “I’m guessing neither of us are gonna budge on that subject, huh?”

“What subject?”

“Where we came from, why we’re both on the run?”

“Probably not”

“Then how are we supposed to y’know, work together?”

George sat up to stare at Dream’s eyes, well, more like the small holes in his mask, “Then let’s find common ground, we found each other outside of the palace, why’s that?”

“Cuz I’m on the run from the king.”

“Okay then, me too. There, we have something in common, a common enemy.”

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend,” Dream mumbled, thinking to himself.

“That’s one way to put it”, George sighed, leaning back to lay on the ground next to Dream.

They both laid there in silence, staring at the stars, and listening to the muffled yelling of soldiers from the village. There was a sort of silent agreement between the two, they were allies for the moment. I was a kind of unsteady deal, but it was all Dream had and he was going to cling to that. He couldn’t tell anyone, especially this guy, that he was the _prince_ of the Overwoods. They both hated the place, but Dream doubted that would matter to George if he found out. All George would see was a spoiled prince from a corrupt kingdom.

Dream outstretched his arm, holding his cloak, “You sleep the first shift, George.”

George gave him an odd look, “But I just got to sleep, you said so. You should slee-“

“It’s okay, here,” Dream gestured to the cloak and looked back up at George, smiling, though he couldn’t see it.

When George took the cloak, Dream felt relieved, “I’ll wake you in four hours”, he turned to look at George, but he was already out like a light. Dream chuckled to himself. _Jeez._

After making sure George was asleep, which he was positive of after hearing the soft snoring, Dream took off his mask, he wanted a better view of the stars.

He reveled in the victory he had accomplished, he was out of the kingdom, out on his own. He could stare at the stars, ride horses, and sleep in the woods all he wanted. He made his first friend, well, his first friend on the outside. He hoped that Bad hadn’t been caught talking to him, he would forever be grateful for him, even though he did yell ‘Language!’ every time he complained. For now, all he could do was hope that his friend was okay and have a moment of peace by staring at the stars. He was free.

_Do I deserve this though?_

Dream was confused by the sudden thought that popped in his head, but still, it had struck a chord. Somewhere deep inside him, there was a touch of guilt when it came to how he spoke with George. His brows furrowed as he thought, _I lied to George, he hates my kingdom. He hates my dad. He probably hates the prince, me, too. My kingdom has probably ruined that guy’s life in some way, and I’m just taking advantage of his kindness._

George continues to snore, unaware of Dream’s moral dilemma. Dream turns to look at George, bundled up in his green cloak.

_He never told me anything either, we’re both keeping secrets._

That thought seemed to settle some of the guilt in Dream’s heart, not all of it, but it eased him enough to be able to enjoy the stars again. He ran his hand through his hair, mostly caked with dirt and leaves now, and patted himself on the cheeks a few times to keep himself alert.

_Focus on the present now, we’re on the same team, that’s all that matters._


	6. Pocket Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream forgets the fact that he is rich.

George was sleeping peacefully, but it must not have been a very heavy sleep because he jumped up at the sound of a stick being crushed against the ground. He sat up straight and quickly looked around to find the source of the suspicious noise, he turned around to see his new friend rushing to put on his mask. George didn’t even manage to see anything, he was disappointed.

Dream turned around to face George and apologize, “Oh shit! I didn’t mean to wake you up I was just, well I just wanted to walk around because I’m not gonna lie I got a little bored and-“

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” George said, trying to stop his rambling, “How long was I asleep for anyways?”

“About four hours I think.”

“Oh, perfect timing, I’ll just stay awake and you sleep for the next four hours.”

“You sure?” Dream questioned.

“Yeah, didn’t we agree on taking shifts sleeping?”

“Well yeah, but I was kinda planning to just let you sleep because y’know… you kinda passed out earlier.”

“That’s nice and all Dream, but you haven’t slept at all and I think you’re a little too tall for me to carry.”

Dream wheezed a little, “Yeah, you’re short,” George could practically hear him smiling from under that mask.

“I’m not _that_ short, idiot, you’re just abnormally tall. Okay uh- y’know what Dream? Go to sleep.”

Dream continued to wheeze, extremely amused at George’s anger towards being called short. He took a deep breath, “Okay, okay… can I have the cloak? To sleep with?”

George looked down and realized he was still clutching Dream’s cloak to his chest. It wasn’t even cold so it’s not like he really had an excuse. He extended his arms, holding the cloak out to the taller man. 

“Thank you,” Dream sang, quickly bundling himself up and immediately going to sleep.

\---

After four hours of patrolling the woods, which mainly consisted of aimlessly walking around in circles and swinging sticks around, it was finally time to wake up his friend.

George stomped over to where Dream was sleeping, eager to wake him and get started with their day. He bent over to shake him on his shoulder, but his hands hesitated when he passed by the mask.

_I could just take it off now, he’d never know._

George’s hand brushed against the edge of Dream’s mask, contemplating whether to just give in to his burning curiosity or leave it be. He slowly lifted his hand away from the mask, redirecting it towards his shoulder to wake him up.

_There’s probably a reason he keeps his face hidden._

George shook Dream’s shoulder, almost instantly waking him up.

“Dream, the guards left while you were sleeping, lets go get some stuff,” George patted Dreams shoulder, stood up, and extended his arm for Dream to take. Dream grabbed his hand and pulled himself up, still groggy from waking up.

“Yup… I’m up, I’m awake.”

“I know, c’mon we’ve gotta go, I wanna get as far away from this kingdom as I can.”

Dream groans, obviously wanting to go back to sleep, but begins to walk towards the village with George.

“If we get everything done quickly, you get to go to sleep sooner,” George said, turning around to face Dream while he walked.

“What exactly _are_ we doing?”

“Getting food, medical supplies, weapons, stuff that we need to _survive_.”

“Okay that doesn’t sound too complicated,” Dream said, much more awake than before, “Let’s go!”

\---

“We don’t have money, oh my God how did I forget that we didn’t have any money,” George mumbled to himself, completely stunned that he hadn’t come to this realization before now.

Dream looked at him confused and started rummaging in his pockets, but George already began forming a backup plan.

He swiftly swung his sword upwards, allowing the deep blue gem to shine in the sunlight, “Welp, looks like we’re going to have to steal, ready?” He turned to look at his friend, but he had… _money_? Lots of it actually.

“I found some pocket change in my cloak” Dream announced, innocently holding out his hands, nearly overflowing with change, towards George.

“Pocket change?” George asked, completely baffled.

“Yeah uh, will it be enough?”

“Uh… yes that should… cover it,” George was still extremely puzzled.

_Who did this guy have to steal from to get all that?_

George shook his head to clear his thoughts, “Well let’s go, we’ll get food and medical supplies first, then we need to find you a weapon.”

Both the boys spread out to buy the supplies they needed, Dream got the food, and George got the medical supplies. George wasn’t planning on getting hurt, nor was he planning to use up all of the money Dream had, so he settled on just grabbing some proper bandages and two healing potions. One for each of them. He also made a quick stop to purchase a bag and a sheath for his sword that attaches to his belt. He couldn’t really be flashing around a weapon like that in public.

George wandered around to find the blacksmith, Dream and George had agreed to meet by where they were going to buy weapons once each of them was done. The extra stop to buy a bag had apparently given Dream plenty of time to buy all the food and wait for George to finish. George eyed the bag that Dream was holding the food in, and softly laughed to himself, it seemed like they both had the same idea.

“Nice bag” George smirked.

“You too, ready to go?”

“Yes, what do you want? A sword?”

“Yup,” Dream cheered, excitedly following after George.

They perused through the premade swords, trying to pick a decent one for Dream to use. Dream eventually settled on a sword. It was pretty nice, in George’s opinion, it was a nice dark silver with a black grip, it had a slightly shorter blade than his own, but it ended with a nice point. There were no jewels to make it flashier like George’s, but it was very beautiful in a sleek and simple way. Once Dream saw it, he bought it immediately with no hesitation. That was his sword, and it fit perfectly in his hands.

Dream walks out of the blacksmith’s shop with the newfound confidence of being able to hold an awesome weapon that was all his.

George stepped out of the shop, watching Dream stare at his sword through the holes of his mask, when he saw an abandoned bow and some arrows on the ground. No one was nearby, so he just took it. Quickly throwing the quiver full of arrows over his shoulder, he jogged back over to Dream.

_I’ll show Sapnap who’s good at archery._

“Hey George, where do you think we’d find a place where we could get a map around here?”

“I don’t know, let’s just ask a random person.”

“I can’t just walk up to random people asking for a map, George.”

“Okay, okay, maybe we can find a map in the library over there?”

“Uh, yeah let’s try that.”

George led Dream over to the library, eyes peeled searching for the nearest person to help. George was about to head into the library when he noticed Dream walking away from him towards a woman looking through the educational books section.

Dream waved at the woman and walked over, “Excuse me, ma’am, do you know where me and my friend there,” he turns around to gesture towards George, “can find a world map?”

The woman quickly smiled at Dream, but quickly moved her eyes back to the book she was holding, obviously trying to avoid staring at his mask, “Oh yes I can help with that! The maps should actually be somewhere around in this section!”

She guided Dream to the end of the shelf, and George followed, she pulled out a thin sheet of paper out of the shelf and handed Dream one of the many copies of a world map, including a red dot to indicate where the village was located.

“They collect maps in the educational section of the library for the children’s history projects, are you here to get a map for your… sibling perhaps? You both look too young to have children.”

Dream looked towards George, unsure what to tell the woman. George knew they had to keep a low profile, the guards probably had a description of George from the carriage driver, so the villagers were definitely aware of the two runaways. He didn’t want to be turned in to the guards.

George walked over to the woman and interjected, “Yes ma’am! We’re actually looking for a map for my younger brother, he’s a little sick at the moment so my friend and I told him we would bring it home to him!”

“Aw, well that’s very sweet of you boys, have a nice rest of your day!” The woman smiled once more, waved, and walked away.

Once George was sure the woman had left the library, he turned to speak to Dream, “Ready to go, we should find a place to slee-,” he stopped upon realizing that he was talking to himself. Dream had already wandered off again. George genuinely couldn’t tell if he was friends with Dream or if he was babysitting him.

“Dream? _Dream?”_

George scanned through the aisles, searching for his friend. He turned the corner to the fiction section and finally saw him. Dream was stood in the middle of the aisle, examining the books on the shelf. George walked up next to him to see what it was that had the masked man so captivated, only to see that Dream had settled on looking at the shelf filled with action and adventure novels.

“A fan of action novels? Personally, I’m more of a mystery guy but to each his own.”

Dream jumped, apparently not realizing George had snuck up beside him, “Y- yeah, well, I guess it kinda reminds me of home.”

“You had a lot of books at home?”

“Oh definitely, but I mainly just liked to write short stories.”

“Let me guess, action?”

“Yup.”

George elbows Dream, “So predictable. Well, you ready to go?”

“Oh- yeah, let’s go.”

George led Dream out of the library, searching for a secluded place for the two of them to look over the map and figure out their next move. His eyes settle on a nearby bench near the side of the library, the sun was beginning to set so there weren’t any people outside. George grabbed Dream’s arm.

“Over here,” He said, pulling the taller man behind him.

“Why?”

“I want to look at the map.”

“Can’t that wait? I wanna sit on an actual bed.”

“Sleep can wait Dream this is important.”

He felt guilty for keeping Dream away from a comfortable mattress, but he couldn’t tell him that the reason he was so desperate to get a look at the map was so he could locate his home, the Spikes. He knew going there next was unrealistic, he saw how long that carriage ride was, he couldn’t even imagine doing it on horseback. But George could at least get to have a little glimpse of his past life, even if it was just ink on paper.

The two settled down on the bench, and Dream pulled out the map. They both observed it closely, noting the red dot that indicated where they were currently. George found the Spikes on the map and felt his chest fill with despair upon having a visual of how far away his home really was, how far away Sapnap was. From the Overwoods, it was practically the furthest thing on the map, the only other major civilization being L’Manberg and of course, the Nether.

Dream slammed his finger down on the map, directly on the country L’Manberg. George looked at him, puzzled.

“Hmm?”

“It’s L’Manberg!”

“And?”

“What do you mean and? It’s obviously the best decision,” Dream said confidently.

“Why?”

Dream perked up, eager for the opportunity to seem knowledgeable about something, “Well the Spikes is obviously too far away, plus it's… well… it’s the Spikes, we’d never survive the snowy weather. The Nether is most definitely _not_ an option, so that leaves L’Manberg. They’re a generally neutral and peaceful country, they tend to keep to themselves so I’m assuming that they wouldn’t support the Overwoods in the war.”

“Wait, war? Dream, what war?”

“Oh right. The Overwoods are planning to fully take control of the Nether to use its resources and industrialize it. That’s why I think L’Manberg is a good place to go, if we’re both on the run from the Overwoods, that would be the best place to go. Based on how they’ve sided in the past, L’Manberg would never support this.”

_How the hell does he know all of this?_

“Okay then, L’Manberg it is.”

“L’Manberg it is,” Dream repeated, “So can we find a place to sleep now? I’m like, really tired.”

“Yes, definitely,” George replied.

_How does this guy know so much about the Overwoods? I’ve never even heard about arising conflict until now._

He eyed his new friend suspiciously. _He really does know a lot._

_Maybe he’s a runaway guard? Chef? Some sort of employee at the palace? It’s really the only way._

He watched Dream struggle to fold the giant map back into its compact form, cursing himself every time he got it wrong.

_Yeah, that’s got to be it._

_Just another runaway._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has read this so far! I'm not that great at using AO3 yet but I was really surprised by how many reads I've already gotten! <3 Just a reminder that if you want updates, I usually post on Ghostyyishere on Tiktok when I finish a chapter! <3 <3


	7. Nervous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George is a theater kid, apparently.

“Where are we gonna stayyy?” Dream complained, throwing his head to the sky. George was going to lose it if he complained like this one more time, Dream can be really immature when he wants to.

“Shut up, you’ve already asked five times, we’re looking for a house to stay.”

“Can we find it faster?”

“I’m trying!”

They walked in silence for a while, both searching for a potential place to sleep. Neither of them were too eager to sleep on the floor again. After a while someone began walking up to them, probably suspicious of two grown men – one in a mask – wandering around the street at night.

Dream turned when he noticed the man walking up to them, sensitive to the sound of the footsteps trailing behind the pair. George also turned and noticed that Dream seemed tense. He put his hand on Dream’s shoulder and squinted to see the man.

He didn’t look like a threat, definitely not a soldier, he was probably in his late forties.

The man lifted his chin, “What are you two boys doin’ out here, you know we’ve had a problem with robbers. Go get inside.”

A lightbulb lit up in George’s head. Almost immediately he shifted all of his weight onto Dream’s shoulder. He was always known to be a little overdramatic.

Dream turned to look at him quizzically, at least George assumed he was under the mask.

He looked up at the man, “Well, sir, that’s why we’re here. Actually… me and my friend here got ambushed by robbers and we were trying to find a doctor for my friend here,” George patted Dream’s face mask and looked at the ground, feigning sadness.

“He got a pretty bad gash on his face from the fight, I patched him up a little, but we need a doctor and a place to sleep, you see… he doesn’t want it to scar too bad.”

George let out a fake sob, Dream finally caught on to the act and began to lean on George for support.

Dream cried, “He’s right sir, and we don’t have any idea where to go to sleep for the night, I mean we could camp out, but all I’ve got is this little cloak to share between the two of us,” He pinched his cloak and let out a heavy sigh.

The man looked extremely concerned, which was surprising. Because, in George’s opinion, Dream’s performance was a little… lacking.

“Come with me, you can stay in the guest bedroom.”

George looked up and wiped a single tear from his eye, “Really? Are you sure, sir?”

He nodded and gestured for the two to follow him, “Kids are outta town, we’ve got the extra space. You gotta be out before breakfast though because the wife will wanna fed ya’, but we don’t really got… the resources for that. You understand?”

“Yes sir, thank you so much!”

\---

The excruciating pain of keeping up the somber act was finally lifted when they were alone in the guest bedroom. Dream shut the door and immediately began wheezing. George was used to the sound but was concerned for the health of his lungs, though he also found the whole situation funny.

Once their stomachs hurt from laughing and they finally calmed down, they got a look around the room. It was a decent size, only one bed but enough room for the two to spread out.

George let out a final giggle, but stopped himself quickly, “Hey, hey, let's just get ready to go to sleep.”

“And tomorrow? Plans?”

“Well, we’ve got all the supplies we need,” He mumbled, quickly rummaging through their bags, “yeah, so we leave tomorrow, first thing in the morning.”

“No breakfast?”

“We’ll eat on the way!” George laughed.

“Okay, and how long ‘til we actually reach L’Manberg?”

“I’m guessing a week on horseback?”

“Hmm…”

“Well, getting to the Spikes takes about two, so looking at the map I’d guess one for L’Manberg.”

“You been to the Spikes? How is it?”

George stared at his hands in his bag, fingers brushing against the map.

It’s great, I miss it.

“Really, really cold.”

Dream plopped down on the bed, hands supporting the back of his head, “Ya think it’ll be dangerous?”

“Why, you looking for an adventure or something?”

“I mean yeah, kinda been writing about that stuff since I was a kid.”

“Oh, so you wrote adventure stories, were you a little night in shining armor?” George sang teasingly.

“Hell yea dude, that’s where I got Dream from.”

“Where you got Dream from?”

“My new name, I got it from my book. I wrote about a knight named Dream, and he would y’know kill shit and save hot people.”

“Oh you have to let me read that one day.”

Dream scoffed, “In your dreams, all my old writing is awful. Most you’re gonna get is the recent stories.”

“So you still write little kids stories, how old even are you?”

“Twenty-one, and it’s not a kid’s story!” He threw his pillow at George.

“Whatever you say, Dream,” George laughed, laying down on the opposite side of the bed.

“Yeah, yeah okay. Let’s just go to sleep.”

They both got settled in, turning their backs to each other, and attempted to fall asleep, but George felt restless. He didn’t want to admit it, but this whole journey did make him nervous, that on top of the apparently impending war wasn’t very soothing to think about. He turned around in the bed, facing Dream.

“Hey Dream.”

Dream flipped around in bed, “Yup?”

“Are you… nervous about tomorrow?”

George scooted closer to Dream.

“A little, you?”

“I’m not nervous at all, I was just checking on you.”

Dreams voice deepened, taking on a more serious tone, “George,” Dream propped his head upon his arm, now looking down at George lying next to him, “It’s okay to admit you’re nervous.”

George stared up at Dream, taken aback by the sudden seriousness in his voice. He could clearly see his jawline, resting against his hand, the first real feature of Dream’s face that he’s seen.

He’s probably a good-looking guy.

“George…?” Dream repeated, moving his face closer to George’s.

George looked down, embarrassed by how close the two were, “Okay fine, I’m a little nervous, it’s a big trip.”

“See, not so hard.”

“…Yeah”

“You’ve got nothing to worry about George, besides, your knight in shining armor is right here.”

“Ugh, goodnight,” George flipped back around.

Dream let out a light laugh, enjoying teasing George, “Goodnight.”

George shut his eyes tight, hoping that Dream calming his nerves would help him sleep easier.

Not working.

He laid there for a while, waiting for his heart to stop beating so fast so he could finally go to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ty for reading, also be sure to check out ghostyyishere on tiktok because I post updates there!!


	8. Less Defense

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George is pleasantly surprised by Dream's sword-fighting.

George woke up suddenly, being shaken. He turned around to give Dream a dirty look for disrupting the first peaceful sleep he’s had in weeks. In the first real bed he’s slept in for weeks.

Dream stood above George and pointed to the window, indicating that it was sunrise. It was time for them to leave. The two quickly packed their bags in silence and snuck through the living room. They were back on their horse before morning, just as the man had instructed.

“Okay Dream, can you navigate for me,” George handed the map to Dream, sitting behind him.

“Yeah, I got it.”

“Thank you, my knight in shining armor,” George clutched his heart sarcastically.

“George!” Dream slapped his arm with the map, “Not funny!”

That didn’t stop George from laughing.

“Alright, alright let’s go.”

George took off with Dream directing him, it would take about a week to get to L’Manberg and George wanted to get it over with.

It only took about 15 minutes in for Dream to get bored, “Georgee?”

“Yes?”

“Can we do something?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know! Something _not_ boring?”

“Like...?”

“That’s why I’m asking _you_ I don’t know either!”

George rolled his eyes, he was bored as hell too, but he didn’t want to add to the complaining.

“Uhhh… tell me about your book.”

“Pfft, that’s way too embarrassing, no way.”

“Hey, I’m not here to judge, and it kills time.”

“Alright, well the plot is pretty basic, cool buff knight dude kills giant monsters.”

“Does he get the girl in the end?”

“No, he gets a dog.”

George giggles, “Why a dog?”

“Because getting the girl is basic, and I want a dog.”

“Reasonable.”

“Anyways, I had to come up with a bunch of cool monsters for Dream to defeat, that’s what I spent the most time on.”

“Do you have a favorite?”

Dream paused as he pondered the question for a moment, “Endermen.”

“What are those?”

“I came up with it when I saw a tall black shadow outside of my room one night, when I got out of bed to check it out, they vanished. I was terrified but in the morning my mom told me she was just checking on me. So basically, it’s a tall, black, and skinny creature with purple eyes; If you look at it in the eye it starts to attack you, so they’re mostly peaceful. Another thing I added was that they can teleport, but they can’t survive in water, they get burned.”

“That honestly sounds really cool, I don’t see why you’re so embarrassed to talk about your writing.”

“Well, you see, my grammar is absolutely horrible.”

\---

Dream went on for hours, delving into the lore of his books. He talked about the monsters he made, which seemed to be his favorite subject. Dream also told George about all the different lands his character travels to. Most of which are based on real places his father would tell him about. George’s favorite was how Dream described the Spikes, it was so obvious he had never seen snow before but the way he described it made it sound like the best thing in the world. He wrote about it as having fluffy snow with nice refreshing, cold air. It wasn’t how George would describe it, but it was a beautiful way to think about it.

Dream had gone over everything in his book, and they fell into a peaceful silence for a moment.

“George?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you teach me how to use my sword?”

“You don’t know how to use your sword?”

“Of course, I do! I just… I was self-taught and thought that you could help.”

“Oh sure, we can stop right here.”

George pulled on the reins, bringing the horse to a stop. He tied it to a tree and grabbed his sword from the bag attached to the horse’s saddle. Dream hopped off the back and followed in his movements, picking up his sword.

“Okay, first things first, show me how you hold your sword.”

Dream held out his arm pointing his wrist towards George. He walked up to Dream and grabbed his hands, adjusting them accordingly.

“Don’t strain your wrist like that – you can hold it like that don’t get me wrong – but stretching your wrist like that all the time will injure it over time. Lower your arm and hold your hand more upwards.”

“Mhmm,” Dream nodded, adjusting his pose, and trying a few swings.

George didn’t really know where to go from here, the only other person he’s ever taught was Sapnap. He tried to recall how he taught him. It was so long ago, probably when they were teenagers.

“Take a few swings at that tree, Dream.”

Dream stepped up to the tree and swung. His movements were very close to the tree, his fighting style mainly consisted of getting up close jabs and then quickly retreating to regain footing. He kept his sword very close to his own body, he seemed to fight more on the defensive. It reminded George of Sapnap. He remembered the first time he taught Sap how to use a sword, his fighting style was very similar, chopping at the target then quickly retreating. He could almost see Sapnap as he watched Dream fight. He could use some improvement, just like his old friend, but he was pretty talented for being self-taught.

“How’d I do?”

George snapped out of his trance, “I hate to admit it, but that’s pretty awesome for only teaching yourself. You’ve got a good fighting style, even though it’s different from mine, so I have a few suggestions.”

“Yup?” Dream looked eagerly, excited for the chance to better himself.

“You keep your sword close to your body, which is good for when you’re on defense, but I’d rather you fight more spread out when on the offensive.”

“How do I do that?”

“You just extend your arm, keep your target further away. Make slicing movements,” George quickly demonstrated, “Instead of the jabbing motions you were doing earlier.”

“So, less defense, more offense… got it!”

The two practiced for the next hour. It was a nice break from horseback, Dream seemed happy to be learning from someone instead of teaching himself. It was nice for George too, a friendly reminder of his friend at home, just as chaotic and energetic as Dream. They were much more similar than George could imagine, and it really showed when he watched Dream fight. He couldn’t see his face, but he didn’t need to see him to know how he felt. He had an energetic aura about him, he was happy.

And so was George, George was really happy. For the first time in a while, actually.


	9. Spirit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beach episode, but they're in the woods so it's a waterfall episode.

After training for what felt like hours, they finally decided to continue their journey. It was boring, _really boring_ , but necessary. Dream felt bad for George since he was the one with the reins he never got to sleep. Dream offered to take a shift steering the horse, but George shut him down quickly.

\---

“What’s that noise?”

“What noise?”

Dream looked around, peeking through the thick branches, “Sounds like water.”

George pulled on the reins, bringing the horse to a slow jog, “Where’s it coming from?”

“Over there!” Dream pointed slightly to the left.

They rode for a few minutes before spotting it, a nice lake at the end of a river. There was a small waterfall coming from the stream of the river, just about seven feet tall.

“George!”

“Dream!” He mocks Dream’s excited tone.

“Can we please stop?”

“We have to go.”

“Please?”

George looks up at the sun, it was early morning when they first set off. Between the sword lesson and the waterfall, they had probably traveled about eight hours, seeing as the sun was about to set.

“Alright, we’ll stop now and set up camp for the night here too.”

“Yes!” Dream hopped off the horse, “I’ll get the bags.”

By the time Dream had set up their area, George had already tied the horse to a tree and got settled in by the waterfall.

Dream found a dry area a few feet away from the waterfall and placed down his cloak. Neither of the pair had bought a proper blanket at the village so they continued to share Dream’s cloak.

“I’m gonna go swimming c’mon,” Dream declared, taking off his shoes and beginning to wade into the water.

“Dream we don’t have spare clothes you’ll freeze and get sick!”

“I bought clothes.”

“No, you didn’t. What- when?”

“When we split up, I got extra clothes.”

“Oh, I never noticed,” George laughed.

“Come on let's swim!”

“Dream you might have extra clothes, but I don’t, and I don’t really feel like freezing to death,” George pointed out.

“You can use what I bought, probably won’t fit though.”

George sighed, “Alright fine,” He took off his shoes and jumped in, “It’s cold!”

Dream laughed at George, “It’s refreshing.”

George squirmed around in the water, trying to get used to the sudden cold.

“Didn’t you say you visited the Spikes? How are you so bad at dealing with the cold?” He continued to wheeze at his discomfort.

“Well, I used to live there but it's not my fault I got used to this hot ass weather,” George shivered.

“Yup.”

“Why’d you come here then?”

“It wasn’t really my decision.”

“Oh?”

“It’s weird, and kinda hard to explain.”

Dream swam up to George, “We’ve got time.”

“Alright fine,” George hugged his arms.

“Does this mean I finally get a dramatic George backstory?”

“Sure Dream, sure,” he lightly chuckled, “Anyways, I was kind of… forced to move here, to serve as a guard. To be completely honest, I’m kinda bitter about it, I had a friend at home, Sapnap. I miss him. I also just wasn’t too eager to work for the king because he’s… you know… a terrible person. So now I just want to get back home, the last thing I want to do is serve that monster and his stupid-,” George sighed and looked up at the setting sun, “Well that’s about it.”

_That monster and his stupid son_

_George was going to say “son.”_

Dream didn’t respond, taking in all the information.

_George hates me, and he doesn’t even know it._

“That’s awful George, I’m really sorry.”

George leaned back into a backstroke, “Eh, nothing you need to apologize for. Anyways enough about me, what about you?”

“What do you wanna know?”

“I don’t really care where you came from, I just need to know… why the mask?”

Dream sighed, out of all the things he could’ve asked it had to be the mask, “Well, at first it was just to keep the soldiers at the castle from recognizing my face but now, I kinda like it. It’s like… a new start, I guess. It feels like I’m free of my past now, new face, new name- “

“New friends,” George gave a thumbs up.

“Yup, new friends too. It’s nice, getting to leave all that junk behind.”

“Hm...,” George hummed with approval.

They swam around, having a moment of silence before Dream suddenly remembered, “Did we ever name the horse?”

“Wait, oh my God. We never did that.”

“Well, he needs a name!”

“I’m bad at naming things! He needs a good one!”

“Uhh… Steven!”

“Dream that’s a human name.”

“I don’t know!”

“Make it a cool name!”

“I- well I don’t know, Spirit?”

“Where’d you get Spirit from?”

“It sounds cool!”

“… true, true. Let’s go with that then, Spirit.”

“Nice.”

George repeated the name a couple of times, acclimating himself to it, before looking up and realizing the time, “Dream it’s night we gotta get out.”

Dream got out of the water, grabbing the spare clothes he brought in his bag.

“Agh!”

“What’s wrong George?”

“I forgot I got my hair wet, do we have anything I can dry it with?”

He rummaged through his bag, pulled out a spare cloak he had bought, black this time, and waked up to George.

“You have _two_ cloaks now?”

“Yup,” Dream said, ruffling George’s hair to dry it off, “Don’t worry you can still use the other one as a blanket.”

George turned his face away, snatching the cloak to continue drying his hair by himself, “Can you grab me some clothes?”

“I gotcha.”

Dream pulled out a dull blue sweater and some black pants for George. The pants looked small for Dream, so they should fit normally on George. The sweater, on the other hand, was a little oversized.

He selected a black t-shirt and brown pants for himself and tossed the others to George.

“Thanks,” George caught the clothes. He took off the wet shirt, tossing it to the ground. Dream quickly turned around, he didn’t want to look, but he did notice George did have a scar right along his stomach, near his belly button.

“Dream!”

“Hm?”

“This is huge on me!”

Dream turned around, pulling his head through his black t-shirt, “I don’t see what’s wrong with that.”

“I look stupid!”

“You look cute.”

“Oh my God shut up.”

“Just kidding, just kidding. You can take the first shift sleeping I put the cloak over there.”

“Alright,” George huffed and stomped towards the cloak.

Dream grinned at the thought of George getting flustered because of his teasing.

\---

As usual, George is immediately asleep, which leaves Dream time to relax for four hours.

_George hates the prince, he hates me._

He shook his head as that sour thought entered his mind, George likes him, he hates the prince.

_But those are the same people._

Dream ripped off the mask, needing some fresh air. Maybe he was taking advantage of George’s kindness, if George knew who he was, would he be treating him this nicely?

_Better keep that mask on I guess_ , Dream thought.

But that made him think of something, _Does George even know what the prince looks like?_

_Do I even have to hide my face around him?_


	10. Wanted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream is an idiot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small TW for mention of needles!

“Wake up!”

“hhhrgh…”

“ _Wake up_ , George!”

“Oh my God, what do you want?”

“Let’s go!”

“You didn’t sleep?”

“No, nah I’m good! I just wanna get there already.”

“Dream just sleep, you’re gonna like… pass out or something I don’t know.”

“Nah, it’s fine! I’m gooood dude!” Dream repeated, very obviously sleep deprived. The truth was, Dream was anxious. He knew they were going to come to bring him back. His _father_ was going to come to bring him back. They needed to get to L’Manberg before anyone else could get to him and George.

George slowly sat up, still clutching Dream’s cloak, and looked him up and down suspiciously, “Fine, we’ll go now, but that means you get the first shift sleeping tonight!”

Dream nodding vigorously, eager to get going, “Deal!”

“We might have to take breaks to walk on foot for a while though.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to put too much pressure on Spirit, us being on his back for multiple hours has got to tire him out.”

“True, true… Welp,” Dream stood up, extending his hand toward George, “Let’s get going!”

George grabbed his hand and pulled himself up. Once he was stood, he clasped his heart dramatically, “Why thank you my- “

“ _Don’t_ ,” Dream warned.

“-my _knight in shining armor_!”

“ugh,” Dream groaned in annoyance to stifle his laughter.

“What? You don’t like your new nickname?”

George burst into a fit of laughter after Dream’s failure to respond.

“…Let’s go I’ll navigate,” Dream replied, in a desperate attempt to change the subject which only resulted in George laughing harder.

\---

After a few hours of riding on horseback, the sun was right above their heads; it was time to walk on foot. Dream and George climbed off the horse, each grabbing their individual bags, and set off again with George holding the reins. This was a routine they had both become familiar with, despite only traveling to L’Manberg together for a day? Two days? Dream tended to lose track of time; all he knew was that he enjoyed traveling with George.

Dream trudged along, allowing George to take the lead. He was tired. He needed sleep, but he needed to get to L’Manberg more. His sleep could wait a couple more hours when the sun finally set.

He rubbed his eyes and tried to stifle his yawn; if George noticed, he wouldn’t hesitate to make Dream stop and rest.

His eyes perused over the path in front of him, vision blurry from his half-shut eyes. Once he decided the path was mostly safe, he figured it wouldn’t be a _horrible_ idea to just… walk with his eyes shut. Just to let his eyelids rest.

The plan was flawless. The execution? Not so much.

Dream walked in silence with George, eyes closed, for about ten minutes before tragedy struck. One small hole in the ground had undermined Dream’s master plan.

His ankle twisted violently to the side, sending a sharp pain that shook throughout Dream’s spine. There was nothing he could do but accept his fate.

“Oh shit!” Dream screamed – eyes now wide open – as he tumbled down. Once he came to a stop, he gripped his right leg, seething in pain.

“Dream! What happened!” George ran down the hill. He grabbed Dream’s shoulder and put his other hand on Dream’s knee.

“What happened?” He repeated.

“I didn’t see the hole and I tripped, and my ankle really hurts!” Dream complained, borderline crybaby behavior.

“W- well, how did you miss _that_?”

“I was tired, so I closed my eyes while walking!”

The silence from George was deafening, you could practically _see_ the disappointment oozing off of him.

“Wait a sec,” George began rummaging in his bag and pulled out a bottle containing a bright pink liquid, “drink it,” he shoved it towards Dream.

“What’s that?”

“You’re healing potion, I got one for you and one for me.”

Dream shoved the potion away, “no.”

“Why not?!” George scoffed.

“We can’t waste a healing potion on a dislocated ankle, wait until I get like, epically stabbed in the heat of battle!”

“Do you really want me to take you to a doctor right now? Is there even a town nearby?”

“There was one last time I checked the map, if we keep going in the same direction we should get there soon.”

“We? I’m the one who’s gonna do all the walking!”

“Aww, does that mean you’ll carry me?”

“I’ll punch your ankle right now.”

George took Dream’s silence as a sign to keep walking. He extended his hand towards Dream, pulling him up and slinging his arm across his shoulder. George turned towards Dream, their faces barely inches apart, “Can you walk like this,” he asked.

“Uh- uh yup, I can hop on this foot!”

“Alright, let’s get going.”

\---

Wanted signs.

There were wanted signs everywhere. And Dream’s face was plastered on every single one of them.

_If only dislocating my ankle was the worst this day could get._

Dream turned to see George glaring at the posters. Dream squeezed George’s shoulder, causing him to turn around.

“What’s wrong?”

“Him,” he nodded his chin towards the sign, “I guess that’s the prince huh?”

Dream didn’t know whether to scream, cry, or do a fun little miserable mix of both. He could see the hatred in George’s eyes. George really despised him.

“Huh, I guess so,” was all the masked prince could muster.

George seemed to remember the task at hand, “Doctor! Right, where is that?” He looked around for signs, “Oh! This way Dream!”

It was less of a doctor’s office, and more of a nice house with a sign that says ‘urgent care’ above it but hey, they would take what they could get. George rapidly beat on the front door.

“How are you holding up?”

“I’m okay, I’m okay! Don’t give them a heart attack!” Dream grabbed George’s wrist, keeping him from knocking again. George huffed in protest, but his hand relaxed and he waited for the door to open.

“Hello,” a man peeked his head out from behind the door.

George piped up, “Oh, hello sir! My friend dislocated his ankle, and we need to be able to travel, can you please help?”

“Yeah ‘course, come in! Come in!” He ushered the two into his house.

The man quickly collected a syringe, two pieces of wood, and bandages. He rushed over to Dream holding up the needle.

“Woah, hold on now what’s in that?”

“It's an anesthetic, it’ll reduce the pain from when I snap it back in place.”

“Snap what back in- Ow!” He stuck the needle in.

“Your ankle.”

“What!”

“Well it’s not gonna get any better if it’s stuck in the wrong place now, is it? The anesthetic will take about thirty minutes to set in. Here you just relax in here, and I’ll be over there having a chat with uh…”

“George,” George interjected.

“…your friend George.”

The two left, leaving Dream to wallow in his own misery for a solid thirty minutes. All of this guilt about hiding his identity from George was getting much, much worse.

George likes Dream. George hates the prince.

Dream considered those to be two separate people, but would George? Would George see that the Dream he came to know, wasn’t the evil prince he loathes? What would George think once he saw his face?

These were the questions that began to constantly occupy his thoughts.

\---

Dream had been so caught up in thought that he hadn’t even realized that the two had come back. The doctor had his hands on his ankle, clearly preparing to snap it back into place.

That woke Dream up pretty quick.

He looked around desperately for George, only to find him sitting right by his side.

“Do you want me to count it down?” The doctor asked gently.

“…sure.”

“One.”

Dream squeezed his eyes shut.

“Two.”

George gripped Dream’s hands.

“Three!”

Dream clenched his jaw as the familiar pain from dislocating it flared up. His ankle was burning.

With a horrifying ‘snap,’ the pain started to slowly subside.

“You okay Dream?”

“Yeah I’m good,” Dream turned to face the doctor, “Thank you uh… sir.”

“Just call me Philza.”

“Thank you Philza, how much do I owe you,” Dream began rummaging through his bag for change.

Philza stopped bandaging to look up at him, “No you don’t need to pay me, I just help the people in the town and – on occasion – the people who stop by.”

He wrapped up Dream’s ankle, “It’s a small place so we all know each other, plus it’s not very far from L’Manberg, so it’s nice and quiet here.”

“Wait, how close are we to L’Manberg?” George interrupted.

“I’d say ‘bout two days.”

“Damn! We’re closer than we thought!” George exclaimed in amazement.

“Yeah…” Dream replied, looking at one of the dozens of wanted signs, planted right outside of Philza’s window.


	11. This is Different

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> George gets bold.

Dreams ankle ached as they hiked back to where they had left Spirit at the edge of the town. He was glad the bandages covered it up because it looked _nasty_. A giant swollen ankle definitely wasn’t ideal for the most efficient travel. _That_ was going to be a real pain.

Just before he thought he couldn’t take it anymore, he came up with yet another genius idea. Hopefully, this one actually works.

“Georgee,” Dream whined, giving George puppy eyes before realizing he couldn’t see it from under his mask.

“What do you want?”

“Can you carry me, please?”

“I’m already lifting half your body weight, now you’re asking me to carry you?”

Dream lifted his free arm, reaching towards George’s arm. Dream squeezed his biceps, causing George to jump.

“W-what was _that_!?”

Dream looked back up at George, “Yeah your strong, you can carry me.”

“I’m not gonna do that. People will think we’re…”

Dream saw this as an opportunity to mess with George, “What, c’mon now?”

“I’m not saying, that’s embarrassing.”

“It’s fine George, it’s not like I’m wearing a wedding dress or anything,” Dream chuckled at his own joke, but George still seemed just as tense.

Dream stifled his laughter before trying to speak again, he needed to sound serious to properly mess with George, “… unless you’re into that, George?”

George didn’t respond to that one, and it took everything Dream had to not wheeze at the sight of George being a flustered mess. Messing with George was one of the few joys he got out of hours of traveling with nothing else to do. He was about to try to change the subject to spare George the embarrassment before George quickly turned towards Dream.

George grabbed his collar, pulling him close, “and what if I am?”

_Oh._

_This is different._

George stood there, waiting for a response. He’s never done that before, it surprised Dream. He really didn’t know how to respond to this, but George was really close. He turned his face away.

George started laughing. Not his normal airy giggle, this was a cackle. It reminded Dream of the classic evil villain; George was getting a kick out of this.

“You’re all bark no bite,” George let go of Dream’s collar, trying to regain the air in his lungs.

“Well – you’ve never done it _back_!”

“And _you_ were getting on my nerves.”

Dream looked down at his feet, he was beyond embarrassed. He was much more aware of the fact that he still had to rely on George to walk, which only made the red on his cheeks burn deeper.

“Whoa, are you embarrassed? I’ve never seen you like this.”

No response.

“You know, seeing you embarrassed would be a lot better if I could see your face. I bet you’re blushing under there.”

Dream slapped his hands over his mask, preventing any efforts to remove it, “Let’s just get Spirit and go,” he thought for a minute, he had to say _something_ about all that, “I’ll get you back later.”

“Can’t wait.”

_This is a new dynamic_ , Dream thought. He wasn’t sure if he liked it or not. The little comments used to be funny, quick retorts that would make George nervous. Now that he was _doing it back_ , it… stopped being funny to Dream.

\---

“Spirit!” Dream smiled as the horse came into sight. He took off towards Spirit, apparently forgetting he had dislocated his ankle just a few hours ago.

“You can walk!”

Dream looked down at his feet, just as surprised as George, “I guess so.”

George rolled his eyes, a common occurrence during their conversations,” You were probably too busy complaining to even try walking.”

“Welp, too late now,” Dream patted the saddle on top of Spirit, “C’mon you drive.”

“I do everything around here,” George sighed.

They set off on Spirit, much quicker than usual. The two were probably eager to just get to L’Manberg already. Riding past the same scenery was starting to get boring. Tall trees loomed above them as they sped through. The occasional branch whipped George’s arms, leaving a papercut-like slash. There were a lot of animals roaming around. Dream would sometimes see a squirrel leaping tree-to-tree above them.

The silence got unsettling sometimes, especially when the sun started to set. So, Dream and George would make small talk.

Dream put his head on George’s shoulder so they could hear each other over the constant snapping of twigs under Spirit’s hooves.

“What’ll we do when we get to L’Manberg?”

“Hmm? I don’t get it?”

“I mean, that’s all we’ve been working towards for a while now. What comes after we get there?”

George was silent for a minute, probably contemplating his next sentence. He did that a lot, much more than Dream who usually just said whatever popped into his head.

“Well, really we could both do whatever we want. We could help L’Manberg with whatever war you mentioned before, it would be a noble thing to do. We could do all that ‘fight epically in battle’ stuff you were talking about. We could also just live there, or we-,”

He paused for a second, “We could go our separate ways… but personally, I’d rather we go with one of the other two.”

_He wanted to stay with me? Why?_

“Why do you want to stay with me? I mean, I’ve only caused you trouble this whole time,” Dream chucked, trying to pass off his genuine question as a joke.

“You’re a nuisance sometimes, I’m not gonna lie. But… it’s really nice to have company, especially you. We get along, even though we argue, you know?”

“…yeah.”

_We get along._

Dream didn’t have many other friends, well, he had one. That is if you can even count Darryl. He had one conversation with the guy. He was happy to have some reassurance from George that they were good friends. Dream didn’t exactly know what the criteria were for a friend, but apparently George just… fits.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this one is a little short so sorry about that <3 I have no clue what stoichiometry is and I have a test next week so I didn't have too much free time.

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone is reading this, ty!! This is my first time in a while trying to actually write something so it might be a little rusty at first, but constructive criticism is always welcome? I don't know how consistent chapters will come out after next week because that's when I go back to school, but I'll try to update as often as possible.


End file.
